Vantaggi
I work with intelligent, un-pretentious, interesting and collectively positive people every day. This is a workplace imperative for a company that seeks to find its niche on the forefront of a changing industry. The environment makes it hard to find and perfect a niche and nail it down; just when you've figured it out, suddenly what you offer has been commoditized and something newer and cooler is there to be learned. This agency adapts and evolves all the time, which is what makes it a great place to work, *IF* you're the kind of person who digs that. A lot of people think they like challenge, but at the end of the day, they don't. They prefer stability. RBM will probably frustrate them if that's the case. RBM is a great environment for people who like the learning opportunities that come with constant change; the sky is the limit if you're interested in looking for potential and have the drive to build toward it. Sr. Management is remarkably human. It's refreshing and fundamental to the ongoing security of the company. Everyone is encouraged, if not begged, to question the status quo. The president deliberately builds personal relationships with everyone in the company. My manager takes great efforts to understand me and assign me work that will maximize my strengths, make use of my interests, and stimulate and excite me so that I'll be most productive. It is not often that an employer so thoroughly recognizes the "you get what you give" component of the relationship. It thinks outside the box about how to make this the richest experience possible for employees, within reason of its resources as a small company. Can RBM compete with Y&R salaries? What do you think. Can it compete with salaries from most of the 30-person shops in SOMA? As far as my peer group manifests, absolutely. RBM is a fabulous place for people looking to launch their careers in creative, self-defined ways, while learning how to self-manage in an environment that exposes every error and every win for honest assessment. The more freedom we have at work, the more responsibility we have to do it well. RBM has allowed me extraordinary freedom and responsibility at a stage in my career when larger or lesser organizations wouldn't have taken the risk. This company is run by smart, brave people; it is staffed (for the most part), by people who are excited to be going on that ride.
Svantaggi
SOMA gets a little tiring. There isn't always a lot of spare cash sitting around for big bonuses and expensive conferences (although every employee does get a self-discretionary training budget).